Facebook is splashing cash to draw creators to Facebook Live

Facebook is paying about $2.2 million across a group of nearly two dozen internet personalities for them to create video and broadcast live on its platform, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

This sum is part of the larger $50 million pie that Facebook has allocated to get nearly 140 media companies and celebrities to use Facebook Live.

15% of the internet personalities Facebook is paying are known to post content on YouTube and Vine, but Facebook insists that these cash incentives are not part of a wider strategy to lure stars away from rival platforms. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen - it is certainly not in Facebook's interest to enable internet stars to create content on, and attract users, on Google- and Twitter-owned properties.

Indeed, one example would seem to contradict Facebook's claim that it is not intentionally converting YouTube and Vine stars. Ray William Johnson (RWJ), known for his videos on YouTube, is the highest-paid internet star by Facebook, according to the WSJ. He began promoting his Facebook page as a place to find "more videos" on YouTube in the description of a video posted in early May. Since then, RWJ has greatly reduced the amount of YouTube content that he posts, all while upping his posts on his Facebook Page to a near-daily rate. RWJ has not been active on Vine for some time now. His last post on the platform was at the end of January.

Employing internet celebrities is a solid way for Facebook to tap into younger audiences, a point noted by the WSJ. Although these influencers generally have smaller social followings than media companies or Hollywood celebrities, their core fan bases tend to be young, which is incredibly valuable. Younger audiences allow Facebook to extract more value over the course of a lifetime, and are also generally more engaged users -sharing, liking, and commenting. Meanwhile, millennials (18-34 years old) are more eager for video content than older generations, according to a recent Facebook survey.

Currently, Facebook is offering the strongest financial incentives to attract celebrity creators to its platform. Directly compensating creators to produce on Facebook is akin to the compensation methods of traditional entertainment and media companies like TV networks and record labels. On the other hand, YouTube and Vine only reward their celebrities via ad revenue-share agreements.

The question now is whether Facebook will make these kinds of deals a standard form of payment for creators moving forward, or if it will eventually revert to the more conventional revenue-share schemes employed by rival platforms. And if Facebook does maintain this way of paying creators moving forward, will rival social platforms follow suit, to avoid losing out on their most valued crop of stars?

Direct payments could have a number of knock-on effects for the content creators who are not getting paid to post on Facebook. Some creators will likely vie even more for Facebook's money. Others might be turned off by Facebook altogether - discouraged by the fact that they are not getting paid, perhaps - and start to post to other, newer platforms.